Burning Flame
by Aileen Autarkeia
Summary: Right after Loki escapes and breaks the Avengers into pieces, a new girl slips from the shadows to stand in the light for the first time since a tragedy befell her. All knives and laughs, the Avengers accept her, however unwillingly, as one of their own, only to discover what she's hiding. No slash, no pairings, just a girl and her secrets being brought into the open. HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

So, like about five million other people, I went and saw the Avengers and LOVED IT. I've never been a big comic book fan but THIS MOVIE WAS AMAZING.

And because I can literally make a story out of anything at all... well I kinda made a fan fic for it.

Kinda obvious, considering I'm posting this.

Enjoy and the next chapter of Viva La Revolution will be out soon I PROMISE.

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The conference room was a rather sterile environment. The walls were iron, and there was no color to the room- only grey.

The characters in the room were entirely colorful, however. The red haired woman was dressed in a dark blue shirt with a pair of khaki pants. She had an aura of almost superiority about her, dwarfed only by the man sitting on her left. He was casually relaxed, whereas she was sitting stiffly upright. He had a dark grey graphic tee shirt on and a pair of jeans, and faintly visible was a glowing circle on his chest.

The second man was leaning on the table, head in his hands, blonde hair flopping over his forehead. He had a light, colorful plaid shirt on as well as a pair of khaki pants like the woman.

The room was silent except for the soft buzzing of the fluorescent lights. Then the man who was leaning back spoke up.

"Remind me again why we're wasting our time sitting here instead of working on a solution to that little problem called the Tesseract?"

"Director Fury wanted us to meet someone," the woman said, with an air of quiet patience. "Which I find curious, seeing as I don't know the person he's sending. And I know everyone."

"Heads up," the other man said, sitting back in his chair and looking out the window into the hallway on the other side.

A woman in a black catsuit walked past the window and stopped at the door. The door slid open and she entered and stopped.

"Are you-?" The first man started to sit up.

"No. Director Fury wanted me to take you to meet her." The woman spoke with a clipped tone, indicating she wished to be anywhere but there.

The three stood and followed the woman out the door. She paused once to look over her shoulder, said "Keep up", and took off at a quick pace.

They followed her through many twists and abrupt turns. She finally halted and punched in a code to a sliding door. The sign over the door marked the interior as the "Infirmary".

"Oh God, don't tell me that it's someone else wanting for Captain America to sign their trading cards on their deathbed," the first man moaned.

"Hardly," was all their guide said.

They entered and she said, "Third room on the right." She turned around and left.

They followed her directions and found themselves outside of an opaque door. The woman pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Whatever they were expecting, what they found was not it.

A teenage girl was fiddling with an IV, frowning at it as she flicked at the tube. She had dark brown hair that twined around her shoulders and stopped just short of her waist. Her brows were furrowed in concentration and she glanced up when the woman entered, showing strange golden eyes. She was wearing dark jeans and a tee shirt that said "Oh Burn" over a campfire.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to work this thing, would you?" she asked, tapping the IV stand.

The woman hid a smile and shook her head. "I never learned how to work medical equipment. Sorry."

The girl shook her head and waved her off airily. "No matter. I think this red button with the 'X' on it should turn this thing off. Tried yanking it out, but some alarm went off and I got shoved back in here. God blest prison." She muttered the last part under her breath.

The woman smirked and said, "I believe Director Fury wanted us to meet you...?"

"Flame. No 'Agent' in me," the girl said cheekily. "You must be Natasha Romanoff, SHIELD Agent and Black Widow. And Iron Man Tony Stark, and Captain America Steve Rodgers."

"Good with names?" Natasha Romanoff asked.

"Hardly. My brother only talked about you fifty times a day." She shrugged and pointed to a table just out of reach. On it were three knives with sheaths and straps. "Mind helping me out and handing those to me?"

Captain America grabbed them and tossed them to her. With a single nod, Flame sliced the IV wire and tied the dangling end in a knot. She smirked, yanked the IV needle out and tossed it onto the bed. Business finished and freed of her tether, she gestured for them to follow her and exited the room.

"So you're Flame?" Tony Stark asked, catching up to her.

"Yessir," she said automatically.

"I'm assuming there's a reason behind the name?"

"You'd be correct." She offered no more information as they turned right down a side corridor.

Flame started strapping on the knives. Two went on her wrists and a third went over her pants on her upper right leg. Satisfied, she held out her left fist, flicked it upward, and the knife slid smoothly out of its sheath.

Captain America, or Steve Rodgers, gestured to the knife. "Was that your idea, or did SHIELD invent that for your personal use?"

"A little bit of both," she said cheerfully. "I have a few more at my rooms, which is where we're headed because I have been stuck in that darn room for a week and I need to throw some knives around."

"Yeah, about that- how'd you end up in there anyways?" Rodgers asked.

"Meh. Tried a level 11 training dummy and it proceeded to wipe the floor with my face." She made a face and continued, "I'm just glad I didn't try a level 15 like I wanted to."

Flame came to an abrupt halt and hit a few buttons on a blank wall. A hissing noise filled the empty corridor and a door appeared. She stepped inside and went straight to another door on the wall, giving the three time to look around.

It was a warm room with a homey feel. The walls were a warm golden brown paint and the furniture was a dark wood. Flame opened a door and revealed a room with armor in small display cases. She walked right past the first four and opened the last one to reveal a suit of light golden armor. She ignored the armor and stripped it of all weapons, taking the arm guards, a few more knives, the combat boots, and finally something they didn't expect- a handful of grenades and a full sized bazooka.

She stepped back into the main room and began arming up. "Go ahead and look around," she said, not looking up as they drifted to different sections of the large room.

Natasha picked up a camera and began thumbing through pictures. Stark was more interested in the wall of electronics that was on the south wall, and Rodgers wandered back to the armor room.

"Who are these people?" Natasha asked, pointing to the camera.

Satisfied with her arms, Flame stood up and walked swiftly to lean cat-like on the arm of the chair. "Ah. My family."

"Care to explain?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, I guess." She pointed to the only girl besides herself in the group of five displayed on the screen. "That's my sister and absolute best friend ever, Life. The boys are Wind, Earth, and River, my brothers."

She offered no more explanation and instead walked to another door. This one simply had a hand sensor, and it beeped open when she placed her hand flat on it.

It opened into a training room, solid concrete on every surface. She stepped inside, stretched, and waited for them to enter. Flame gestured to some chairs on a wall and stood still, waiting for them to take a seat. They sat and she turned to the opposite wall and snapped her fingers.

A dummy rose out of the ground and she paused, frowned, and tilted her head. Both hands came up, palm down, extended straight away from her. Suddenly she flipped her hands right side up- and the dummy exploded in fire.

Satisfied, she nodded and the next second the dummy was put out, quickly followed by three knives. This time the dummy dodged and Flame grinned. The three present Avengers could see clearly what was written all over her face- a challenger appears!

She forgot that she had watchers and in the next five minutes came down like a fist on the dummy. It hardly landed a hit on her as she spun, dodged and slashed every time the opportunity presented itself. Finally it sunk to the ground, steam coming from it's head and shoulder. She halted, breathing heavily, only to spin as Stark began slow-clapping.

Flame grinned and dipped a fake curtesy, knives sliding out of sight. She was barely sweating as she led the way back into her quarters and sat on a chair, gesturing for them to sit.

"So old Fury wanted you to meet with me?" she asked. "And if you don't mind I thought there were more of you."

Natasha tensed slightly; Rodgers sighed and put his head in his hands. It was Stark who spoke up.

"There was... A confrontation."

"I gathered as much. I was scrambling to help as much as you guys were."

"Well... Loki called his mindless minions to free him from his cage. We weren't expecting such an attack. He turned one of SHIELD's own against us."

"Using...?"

"The Tesseract." Stark slipped some papers from his jacket pocket and handed them to her.

Flame frowned and examined the blue cube. "The Tesseract... Haven't heard that word in a while." She snorted. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I'll bite. Why are you not surprised?" Natasha asked.

"I was supposed to be part of a detail to move it, four or five years ago. It went terribly, terribly wrong. The only saving grace is that I was absent that day."

"Go on."

"I fell ill that day. I was so sick I couldn't even stand. So... my siblings went to move it and..."

She stopped and stared at her hands, eyes unseeing. "I got a call, the next day. I was already worried, but... the person on the other end said that something had happened, and they needed me to come to the bridge ASAP. So I did so, and was informed that..."

She drew a deep breath. "I was told that there had been an accident, involving the Tesseract and a nuclear facility. And... my siblings... all four of them... were... dead."

Flame closed her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek and landed on the documents. "I... I was sort of in this mind-numbing shock for about a week. Couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't do anything. Anywhere I looked there were just these haunting memories, of my siblings and I doing something together."

"What brought you out of it?" Steve Rodgers asked quietly.

"Waking up in a hospital bed and being told that I was about fifteen minutes from death before they found me. That kinda shakes your world up a bit."

"I can't imagine," Stark said sarcastically. Immediately Flame shot him a venomous glare.

"I would rather hope you couldn't," she hissed. "And I would gladly trade anything for that to be taken away."

"Whoa, tiger, didn't mean it," Stark said, leaning back and holding his hands up.

"Sorry. Ehm... Back to my original question?"

"Yeah... We have Agent Barton in custody."

"Care to share for the lesser informed?"

"The Tesseract controls people's minds. Hawkeye got full blast of it when Loki appeared."

"Ok, I'm following. Go on."

"Thor fell to earth in the same cage Loki was originally trapped in."

Flame sucked in a single breath. "I do hope he survived that. I'd rather not be down an Avenger."

"Same," Stark said.

Flame shot him a look, evidence to the fact she still hadn't forgiven him.

"Banner also plummeted."

"Whilst being Mr. Big, Bad, and Green, I hope?"

"Yes."

"And..." Flame thought for a moment. "That's it, correct?"

"Yes. Unless..." Natasha thought for a moment.

"Unless?"

"Unless you join us."

"You think that was Fury's play?" Flame asked.

"That's the only reasonable explanation," Natasha said, shrugging her shoulders.

Flame shook her head. "It truly wouldn't surprise me... old Fury has his own agenda, different from SHIELD's. I really distrust him."

A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Flame snapped her fingers and the door opened, revealing another SHIELD agent.

"Agent Romanoff? Agent Barton has awakened and is asking for you."

Natasha stood instantly, while Flame asked cautiously, "Any possible lasting effects of mind control by the Tesseract?"

"Not showing any at this point in time."

Flame smiled a false smile and rose as well. "I think this concludes our conversation well, don't you? Have a nice day and if you do decide, tell Maria. She'll have someone find me."

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Long chapter mucho?

And I don't own the Avengers. But GEEZ they're awesome.


	2. Chapter 2

After two too many summer camps, I decided to update this story. :)

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They left and Flame sat back down, staring at the picture of the Tesseract. She made no sound as the door closed behind them, but then rose and walked to a plain black door. She tapped a few times in a certain pattern and the door opened, revealing a black room.

She stepped inside and flicked on a light switch. A single chair was illuminated and she sat down in it, head in her hands, silent and waiting.

"Well, sis?" a familiar male voice asked.

"Well what?"

"If they ask, will you join?" a second boy said.

"Should I?"

"You could avenge our deaths," a young girl spoke up.

"But I could also harm so many in my bid for justice..."

"True. Weigh the pros and cons, sis. You always were the level-headed one," a third boy said.

She laughed a little and stood up. "I wish you were here in real life."

"So do I. But you'll join us on this side one day," the girl said.

"Is it bad that I'm rather anxious for that?"

"You're anxious for death? Are you sure the doctor gave you a clean bill of mental health?"

Now Flame laughed truly. "Actually, no, I'm not sure. After all, I'm talking to myself."

No more words were needed as she rose and turned to the door. "I've made my decision. Whether or not I'm standing next to you when the smoke blows over remains to be seen."

She left, and the door swung shut behind her.

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"So what do you think?" Natasha asked as they walked down the corridor after visiting the recovering Hawkeye.

"She's somewhat crazy. But then most people on this ship are," Stark said.

"Speak for yourself. I'm sane," Natasha said with a slight smirk.

"Yeah, right!"

"Let's discuss this at another time. Back to the subject matter at hand," Rodgers said pointedly.

"Right. She's crazy."

Natasha sighed. "Besides that."

"I don't know much about her. While her demonstration was... enlightening, it didn't tell us much," Rodgers said. "I'm not sure I trust her."

"If you want more info on her, I can get that to you," Natasha said. "I know some people."

"Thanks."

They split up, Stark going to fix his suit after being run through the engine, Natasha to get the information, and Rodgers to go back and possibly talk with Flame some more.

Rodgers reached the wall where her rooms were and suddenly realized that he didn't know the passcode to enter her quarters. He was about to go ask someone to let him in when the door opened and Flame poked her head out.

"Hi!" she chirped. "Back so soon?"

"Yeah... I'd like to know a bit more about your siblings," Rodgers said softly.

Slowly the smile vanished, to be replaced by a curious stare. She stepped aside and walked in to sit down.

"So... what do you want to know?" She asked.

"You called them by odd names. Like Life or River. Why?"

"Well, Project Element wasn't just a name. It was created to see if humans could stand having the power of the elements at their beck and call. Every Generation failed spectacularly or whatever they injected the people with failed. Generation 100- MY generation- was the most successful yet. We were the first to not explode, or go insane, or... well everything went wrong for everyone else."

"So you were..."

"Injected with a serum of sorts, correct. As I understand it, you're familiar with that particular technique."

He nodded slightly.

"We were all independent and different; each of us used a different weapon and tactic. Earth was the body-builder- he could muscle his way through a crowd and use his brute strength to strangle anyone. Wind was more swift and depended upon guns to take his target down. Life was the charmer- Lord knows how many boys I had to beat off of her as her older sis before she could reach her target and with a quick tap inject lethal poison. River was as big of a flirt as Life was and "a hit with the ladies" as he always said. A charmer with a bit of a bite- he preferred a blunt club in a back alley."

"And yourself?" Rodgers pressed.

"I wasn't a charmer, or strong, or anything like that. I was swift, and I knew the rooftops like the back of my hand. I had knives and that was all I needed."

"So no elemental powers involved?"

"Hardly. Earth could make himself stronger somehow- I never got a straight explanation out of him. Life could make the poison speed through a body straight to the heart through the blood. Wind never missed a shot. River- I have no idea... And me? Well... I used fire to speed myself up, kinda like rockets."

Rodgers suspected there was more to her vague explanation, but didn't push for more details.

"I think that's all the questions I wanted to ask you," he said quickly, rising from his seat. Flame rose as well and smiled a bit.

"Oh, right."

"What?"

"What were your real names?"

Flame paused, leaned down, and picked up the picture of her family. "Life was Cheyenne. I remember that Wind was Alex, Earth was Chase, and River was... Mark."

"And you?"

She paused. "I was... Katherine. Before everything changed I was Katherine."


End file.
